Protesters in Mexico City

Demonstrators angry at the apparent massacre of 43 trainee teachers have taken their protest to the door of Mexico’s presidential palace.

A group carrying torches broke away from what had been a mostly peaceful protest on Saturday night and set fire to the wooden doors of the historic palace in Mexico City.

President Enrique Peña Nieto, who is facing calls to resign over the murders, lives in a residence across the city and was not there at the time.

Police put out the flames and enforced fencing designed to keep the protesters away from the National Palace, which was built for Hernan Cortes after the Spanish conquest and now houses Mexico’s finance ministry.

During the march, protesters loudly counted from one to 43 while holding candles. Some chanted “Peña Nieto out!”

Hours earlier in Guerrero’s capital Chilpancingo, more than 300 students threw rocks and firebombs at the regional government headquarters.

They also burned around 10 vehicles, including trucks and a federal police vehicle, and chanted “they took them alive, we want them back alive” outside the building, which was partially torched in a protest over the case last month.

Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets of Mexico City and in the south-western state of Guerrero where the students were abducted to decry the government’s handling of the case.

The students were taken six weeks ago and apparently murdered and incinerated by corrupt police in league with drug gang members.

The crisis is the toughest challenge yet to face Mr Peña Nieto, who took office two years ago promising to restore order in Mexico, where about 100,000 people have died in violence linked to drug gangs since 2007.

Despite the unrest, Pena Nieto plans to leave Sunday to attend major summits in China and Australia, though he shortened the trip due to the crisis.

Jesus Murillo Karam, the attorney-general, said on Friday that three members of the Guerreros Unidos cartel confessed to receiving the students from the police in Chilpancingo before killing them. However, relations of the students are refusing to believe the authorities until they receive DNA confirmation.